President Phil Seipp opened the meeting and welcomed everyone to the Ides of March meeting. Cory Gittner gave an invocation and Angel Rodriguez led us in the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag.
Guests and Visitors were introduced by Angela Deggs:
Angela Kaltenbach is a visiting Rotarian from The Rotary Club of Kleinmachnow in Germany. She is an historian and also the incoming president of her 46-member club;
Victoria Stevens is CEO of Lifebridge Outreach Group and is working on creating a 501(c)(3) food bank to help the elderly. A guest of Linda Singer, she will be helping us interview Saturday;
Richard Richards is a guest of Bunny Uriarte. He is an aviation attorney in Coral Gables;
Diane Stieber is visiting again. She is a retired teacher coming to Miami via Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. Her membership has been approved & induction is scheduled for 3/29!
Happy $$$$$$$$$$$ were collected by Jay Almeida:
Jay started happy $$$$ off by being the proud papa to Stephanie and Jessica. Stephanie is passing on the crown of Miss Miami this weekend. Jessica is a possible recipient to that crown;
Marcia Brod was happy to have the tiling of her three bedrooms completed. Also that she and Lenny are still standing after the moving all of the furniture in and out and that they are still speaking to each other after the task;
Randy Lichtman was happy that Jay will be sharing his entrepreneur knowledge with the Rotaract Club at MDC. Randy is also happy to be an Ambassador for a new Toastmasters program. He additionally presented a book from the Miami Book Fair to Norman Kassoff;
Dave Skinner was happy to be back at the meeting;
Bunny Uriarte was glad to be back at Rotary and looking forward to working with Jay on a pilot bilingual TV show for children;
Oliver Ruiz was showing off his green bowtie for St. Patrick’s Day. His firm, Malloy and Malloy, was having an evening reception to celebrate the day – all were invited;
Renel Noel is looking forward to returning to Haiti to continue his valuable work there;
Linda Singer was glad to have hubby Dave Skinner back to his normal (????) self after a medical issue. She was also thrilled to have Victoria at the meeting today and shared that the TBM students she interviewed were amazing;
Diane Landsberg reminded those signed up that 27 students will be ready for interviewing this Saturday;
Angela Deggs was thankful to Randy for getting her into a Spanish class and she was also happy that her daughter is working hard in Milwaukee at school on an Industrial Design Project;
Tim Ryan complimented Bunny’s dress and Oliver’s bowtie. He is heading out soon on a month long trip to Asia;
Jay Almeida thanked Dave Anderson for his legal guidance and also Dave Skinner for lunch.
Announcements:
Amazon Smile has a special program this month so if you make purchases on Amazon be sure to designate our Foundation for funding;
Keep an eye out for the next District Newsletter and the photo of Tim Ryan;
TBM interviews on March 10 went extremely well. Three physicians participated, including a former recipient – Dr. Marc Arel – who also made another generous donation to the Trust. Thank you to all who helped. Two more weeks of interviews are scheduled;
TBM Society recognition was awarded to interviewers Oliver Ruiz, Shirley Pardon, Dr. Percy Nelson and Dr. Marc Arel;
No March board meeting this month. However, Treasurer Phil reports that the club is in very good financial positon;
NO LUNCH MEETING MARCH 22. MEETING WILL BE AT NOON ON FRIDAY, MARCH 23 AT MIAMI SENIOR HIGH with our Interact Club at the School. Details will be emailed;
Rotary Leadership Institute (RLI) is Saturday, April 21. The club will reimburse you for your registration after you attend;
Saturday, April 28 is the District Assembly at Margaritaville on Hollywood Beach. The club will reimburse you for your registration after you attend;
There is also a District Interact Conference coming up. Details to follow.
Speaker:
Today’s speaker is our own club member John Carroll who is a U.S. Marine Lt. Col and works in the Army Command Training Program;
He shared many stories and details on today’s military and what role he has played over the years;
As a trainer, John is charged with the task of getting military staff personnel ready for any possible encounter in the field;
Often times current military personnel have skills that are not being utilized – it is important to discover these skills and take advantage of them;
There has been an evolution in warfare that is hard to understand;
Many changes have occurred over the years in how recruits are trained. Once boot camp is completed it can now take up to a year to train an individual for his job;
John and other retirees are employed by the military to share their knowledge of past experiences. Training methods and strategies are constantly being updated and improved.
With Norby Rudel failing to pick the lucky card, our 50/50 pot grows to $840 plus whatever is raised at the 3/29 meeting. Purchase your chances early so as not to disrupt the end of the meeting.
After another wonderful meeting, Dave Anderson led everyone in the 4-Way Test.
